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biloxi and gulfport: 6 months and 3 weeks later

2006-03-24 - 3:36 p.m.

all photos � 2006 by elaine radford

I'm back from the beach with a few pictures. Here's what is left of my friend's old apartment complex:

We couldn't really be sure where it was exactly since all of the apartment buildings in the area were swept away down to chopped-up slab. But that's my best guess.

This banged-up bit of barge is what remains of the Grand Casino Gulfport, the casino where I placed my first bet and where I really couldn't seem to lose. Those were the days, my friends.

Nearby was the Marine Life Oceanarium. The dolphins were successfully rescued and have new homes at Atlantis in the Bahamas:

Here's a popular Biloxi souvenir store that featured a huge shark on the edifice. I'd bought a new swimsuit there last summer.

The Scott Aquarium fared no better than Marine Life:

Biloxi is not as bad as Long Beach or Pass Christian, which look like bomb craters, or even as bad as Gulfport, with large areas that are nothing but slabs, but don't kid yourself. There is lots of slabbage. And even where the houses remain, you've got this going on:

Beach Boulevard ends in chopped-up bridges on each end, of course at the Waveland end but also at the Biloxi end:

What can I say? And I have a lot more pictures like this. It just goes on endlessly for hundreds of miles from Biloxi and even farther east and then all the way west to Texas.

It might have been our last free dinner at the now ironically nicknamed pile of debris, which proved to be the only oceanfront casino which is not a pile of debris. We made the most of it. I had a glass of Chivas and parmesan and herb-crusted oysters for the appetizer, then broccoli hollandaise, a glass of Merlot, and pecan-trusted sole for the main course. I wore the gold sparkle twin-seat, the sun spiral necklace with three colors of gold (white, red, and yellow), and the black leather kidskin pants.

In the news:

A Colorado State University hurricane expert is predicting 17 named storms for the upcoming 2006 hurricane season, higher than the number of storms he predicted at this time last year.

With 69 days to go before the start of hurricane season, Dr. William Gray, Professor of Atmospheric Science, is predicting a very active season with 17 named storms, nine storms reaching hurricane strength and of those, five will be major hurricanes....

These are the highest numbers he has ever issued this early in the season, Gray said.